Friday had been one awesome day battling monster tarpons and sharks. The pogy pods were still going strong so my fishing partner for the last few trips and I made a plan to meet at the beach Saturday morning for what promised to be another great day on the big water.
We were braced to set a new county record! I had worked until 10:45 the night before, building leaders, rigging rods, sharpening hooks, etc. I could hardly sleep that night thinking about all the tarpon we were going to have stacked up the next day.
I decided to stop in town for provisions and ice and keep scouting. I made my way up north stopping at any available beach access to glass for bait. As I pulled up to the beach at 16th rd., There they were…..pogies! There were probably 150 people ganged up on the beach and wading in the water right there, seemingly unaware of the large bait school just behind the breakers and what lurked beneath. The bait was nervous and after a few minutes I spotted a tarpon roll on the edge of the school. That was all I needed to see.
I pulled out and headed to recon the remaining accesses before I made a decision where we’d put in. I found some more good bait at Malacompra and phoned Ricky to assemble the team. I could hardly wait for him to get there. With Tarpon rolling and busting into the bait I was chomping at the bit to get on them. Rick finally arrived and we got in the water about 1:30 PM and paddled for the school.
There is not much that’s more exciting than paddling up on a school of bait with big 100 to 150# tarpon busting them. Sometimes the tarpon will strike so violently into the school that bait showers into the air for a 20-30’ diameter.
Due to the almost 3 hour battle Ricky had witnessed me wage on a tarpon the day before, he came packing some heavy duty equipment. Though Rick is an experienced scuba diver and off shore fisherman, this was only his 3rd time in a Kayak. On our previous trips together I had hooked up so quickly Ricky did not even get a chance to fish. Today would be Ricky’s day! My roll for this trip was to keep Ricky in fresh pogies and act as chase boat and photographer.
The school we paddled up to was not tightly bunched which made it a little hard to snag a bait. I had to loop in a treble hook and after a couple casts I had the first volunteer. Rick hooked him up and heaved him back into the pod. About the time I caught another pogy a fish striped Rick’s hook so he paddled over and grabbed bait #2. I was still trying to snag me a bait when Rick Hooked up! Rick hollered out “it’s a big Jack!” The jack pulled him around for a couple minutes before tearing off.
I had just caught bait #3 and Rick had a back up rod so I hollered over to him to try and snag a pogy. He pulled one out on the first cast, hooked him on and served him up. Within minutes Ricky was hollering again “I got him, I got him!” as a big silver tarpon tail walked across the surface. I probably didn’t get to fish more than 10 minutes.
Well, once again it was time to take a ride east for deep water. Since the tarpon was keeping a steady course I grabbed on to Rick’s boat to save some paddling and add a little extra resistance to the fight. The tarpon strained against Rick’s heavy line but all the pulling and acrobatics could not shake my hand sharpened Mustad hook. In about 45 minutes Ricky had him floating yak side and ready for the hero shot!
It was about this point that we heard the first rumble of thunder back towards the beach! Rick spun around and motioned towards the beach and said “look at that, we need to get out of here!”
We finished our pictures as fast as we could, stowed our gear and started paddling as fast as possible for the beach. About then a lightening strike to the NW. really got our attention and added a greater urgency to get off the water. We were about to come to the realization of just how serious a mistake we had made in not being aware of the building storm behind us. Although, I have to say, when we first heard the thunder the sky that direction did not look that threatening.
In the excitement for catching the 120#+ tarpon and moving as fast as possible to get the hell out of there I did not catch what depth the tarpon had pulled us out to but I can tell you this….. It took 15 minutes of paddling with all we had to get back to the 45’ mark!
This is were things got serious. In 45’ of water the wind hit us! I mean some real wind 35-45 mph kind of wind and coming off the beach. The water went from a slight swell to 3-4’ waves breaking over the bow. We were literally paddling for our lives. The thing I remember most was the pressure against the face of the paddle every time it came up. It was incredible. The rain was starting to come down but luckily we never lost sight of the beach.
The only thing we could do was paddle with all we had, stay square to the waves and hope the storm subsided before we ran out of steam. Finally, after about 25 minutes the wind let up and the water started to lay. What a relief that was! It took us a solid hour to make it back to the hill.
Little did we know how bad it was about to get just a few minutes after this picture was taken!
By the time we were back on the beach the big surf had disappeared!
We drug our boats up on the beach and just sat there exhausted. I looked at Rick “I know your butt was puckered on that paddle, It sure had my attention!”
My close friend Capt. Rick Ruebel gave me some good advice once….”you need to be done fishing and headed back by 1:00PM to avoid the afternoon thunder storms. I won’t let myself get caught like that again!
If your planning a trip in the surf with your yak, fish with a partner and be prepared. It can be one of your best days on the water but things can go sideways real fast.
Good luck,
Larry S.
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